The Healthy Food in Health Care Initiative

Healthy Food in Health Care is a national initiative to encourage healthy & sustainable food purchasing in hospital cafeterias and patient meals.    

In Washington state, approximately 15 hospitals have signed the "Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge" to prove their commitment to purchasing local and sustainable foods, reducing food waste, and making sure that hospital staff, patients, and visitors have access to foods that promote health, rather than disease.

This initiative asks hospitals to:

• Support Sustainable Agriculture
• Minimize Food Waste
• Improve Nutritional Quality

Hospitals serve meals 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Health care spending is responsible for about 16% of the US GDP.  With such massive purchasing power-combined with the moral authority of health care professionals-they represent an enormous catalyst for change in our national food system.
Washington PSR asks hospitals to:

Physicians and healthcare workers recognize a wholistic concept of "healthy food".  The health consequences of methods of production, processing, and distribution are no less real and concrete as the contents of the food itself.  We aim to establish food systems that are environmentally sound, economically viable and socially responsible, and-as a result- healthier for all.

Health Care Without Harm is the national sponsor of this initiative, and Washington PSR is excited to join forces to bring their message to our state.

WPSR is working with Washington hospitals to sign the Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge. 

Don't see your hospital on the list? Contact Program Coordinator Kathy Pryor, kathy@wpsr.org, to get started!

For more information, please visit http://www.noharm.org/us_canada/issues/food/start.php

	Health Care without Harm: A Menu of Options Healthy Food Issues
	Redefining Healthy Food: An Ecological Approach to Food Production, Distribution and Procurement
	Toward A Healthy, Sustainable Food System AHPA Policy Statement